New Delhi. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that if the roads are not in good condition, then the agencies operating the highways should not collect toll from the users. Gadkari was addressing a global workshop on satellite-based toll collection system. This system is to be implemented on more than 5,000 km long highways in the current financial year itself.
Gadkari said, “If you do not provide good quality service, you should not charge toll. We are in a hurry to charge toll to collect fees from users and protect our interests.” He said, “You should charge user fee only at the place where you are providing the best quality road. If you charge toll even on potholes and muddy roads, then you will also have to face the reaction of the people.”
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to implement a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) based electronic toll collection (ETC) system within the existing FASTag system. It will initially use a hybrid model in which both radio frequency identification (RFID) based toll collection and GNSS-based toll system will work together.
Keeping in mind the large scale implementation and privacy concerns, the National Highways Authority of India has said that it will first be implemented on commercial vehicles. Later, it is proposed to implement this system on private vehicles as well. Along with this, NHAI has also recommended analysis of driver behavior and analysis of data to detect fraud.